Now M&S and BAA dump Cazenove

BLUE-blooded stockbroker JPMorgan Cazenove has lost Marks & Spencer and BAA as broking clients, bringing the firm's big-company losses to seven in one year.

Marks & Spencer had used Cazenove as its broker for around 50 years but today opted for fresh blood from Morgan Stanley - its joint financial adviser on the defence against last year's bid approach from Philip Green - and Citigroup.

Airports operator BAA dropped Caz as its broker in favour of UBS, but kept on Hoare Govett.

The losses will be yet more blows to Cazenove's hopes of building bigger and more profitable takeover advisory businesses as well as more international equities business since it joined forces with US investment bank JPMorgan 11 months ago.

Within a month of the merger, ITV dropped Cazenove in favour of Morgan Stanley. Security services firm Group4Securicor followed suit in January, choosing Deutsche instead.

In February, HBOS dumped Cazenove for Morgan Stanley but kept on DKW, and drinks giant Diageo hired Goldman Sachs and CSFB as joint brokers in place of it. In July, Centrica dropped Cazenove in favour of UBS and Goldman.